Similar Differences
by PaperKat
Summary: Companion to Starhawk's First Series. Ty and Ashley's trip to the market opens up conversation and eyes. Set sometime before Red Warning.


Similar Differences 

Similar Differences

Written by PaperKat

Ty glanced over his shoulder when Ashley made a rather strange noise in the back of her throat. She was holding the Quel pod he had just given her by its stem, her face was twisted in comical revulsion. When she noticed he was looking, she held the fruit out to him and wrinkled her nose.

"Is it suppose to be this slimy?"

Knowing what Ashley's reaction would be, Ty took the pod from her and ran his fingers over its gray film covered furry surface. Ashley looked like she was going to gag. It took everything Ty had to look as serious as he possibly could and not grin.

"You're right it's a bit young, but in a day or two in the window it will ripen right up."

He held out the Quel, intent on dropping it back in Ashley's hand, but the Yellow Ranger was too quick. She had a vender provided carry bag ready and waiting. Ty smirked as he dropped it inside, the sticky outside of the pod adhered to the thin material of the bag and slowly slimed its way to the bottom.

"I know I'm going to regret asking, but what does that go in?" Ashley asked as she tied off the top of the bag tightly as if to keep the Quel from escaping. When she tried to grasp the bottom of the bag to carry it, the pod oozed to the top and Ashley shuttered.

"You know that green dessert that you like so much? The one that you said reminds you of Jello?"

"Yeah." Ashley answered, her mouth turning down.

"It has nothing to do with it." Ty informed her with a grin. As soon as Ashley caught on to his joke she slapped him lightly on the arm.

"No, really I use the seeds inside to flavor soup. I haven't made any yet."

Ashley accepted his answer gamely but still held the bag by the very top. "So, what else do we need?"

Ty looked down at his list and then into the basket he carried. He had almost everything he had come for. Ty knew that all he had to do was to put in a request and all the supplies that he needed would have been delivered to the hanger, but there was something satisfying about picking out his own fruit and vegetables from an open air market like this. It made him feel less separated from the life he once knew.

"Just a few small things, but we'll have to go to the other side of the market for them."

Ashley nodded her acceptance and fell into step behind him when the space between the vendors became too narrow. "Have you ever written down your recipes?" 

"No, why?" Ty had to wait for her response as Ashley paused to allow a mother and child to pass by her in the cramp space. Ty smiled when Ashley waved her fingers at the little boy and he grinned back.

"Well, I was just thinking it would be kinda nice if some of us took turns cooking for a change." She told him as they started walking again.

"Not, Zhane." Ty cut in quickly and Ashley returned his grin.

"No, not Zhane, but I wouldn't mind, and Karone said something the other day about it too." That surprised Ty to think that Astrea had any desire to be domestic. Of course she probably planed on zapping breakfast out of thin air.

"But have you ever cooked before?" Ashley gave him an exasperated huff at his question.

"Yes, I've cooked before, but if you haven't noticed I'm not from around here. There are a lot of things that are similar, but there's just as many things that are not." She punctuated the statement by holding out her Quel and scrunching up her nose. "If I had a recipe at least I'd know what to use, no matter how ugly it was."

"I think I could do that, or better yet how about I teach you. You're getting a great start now, just by being here."

"Why do you think that I've been following you to the market all this time, Ty?"

Ty stopped and stared at her. He had never thought about how coming to live on a different planet would have affected Ashley. Now that he really thought about it, Ashley always seemed to be ready with a new question for him about daily life on KO-35. Questions that had seemed to be just 'getting to know you' questions took on a new light.

"Oh, I come to be with you too." Ashley hastened to assure him, her hand on his arm. "But, I figured that if I was going to live on KO-35 I'd better learn how to deal with the local cuisine. Zhane's already shown me every Vegetarian restaurant in an hour's radius, but I'd rather not have to go out every time I want to eat."

"There's always DECA's synthatron." He received a glare and a push to get walking again. "So, I can expect you bright and early tomorrow morning for you first lesson?"

"I'll be there early, but I'm not promising the 'bright' part."

Finally coming to the section of the market where he could find his herbs, Ty slowed his pace and looked the selection over, but Ashley's earlier statement got Ty to thinking. "Let's talk about you."

"Me?" Ashley questioned, surprised by his abrupt request. "What's so interesting about me?"

"Here, you're the 'alien' remember." Ashley smiled and inclined her head in agreement. "So what's different about Earth?" 

Ty held up a bunch of mint for Ashley's notice before placing it in his basket.

"Oh, I don't know, fossil fuels, two dimensional movies, doors that swing open, coupons, cherries… you guys don't have anything that's even close to cherries."

"Cherries?"

Ashley nodded her head and held out her hand, spacing her forefinger and thumb a short distance apart for demonstration. "Little round fruit that are usually dark red, with a proportionately large seed in the middle called a pit."

"Are they sweet?" 

"Some are, some are tart. There's all sorts of varieties. What's that blue thing?" Ty looked up at the long dried lengths of herb Ashley was pointing out.

"Those are Sul Ribbons. Very spicy and they're green not blue."

"Look blue to me."

"But they're not."

"Fine they're blue-green."

"I'd say green-blue."

"Teal?"

"OK. I'll go with that."

They chuckled at themselves and moved on to the next vendor.

"Well, maybe the next time you go back to Earth you can bring back a cherry plant."

Ashley shook her head and grinned. "Trees. Cherries grow on trees and I think that the Agricultural Committee would have a fit if I tried to do that. The only reason I think I got to bring the kittens was because Karone scared the officials."

"You could always ask. KO-35 is always looking for new commodities." Ty paused, remembering what else she had said. "You had kittens here?"

"Yeah." Ty noticed how quickly Ashley's mood seemed to darken and he wished he hadn't have brought it up. "When I first moved here, me and Karone had a pair of kittens. Katana and Karma. When we went on the Power quest and didn't come back DECA gave them to my friend back on Earth to take care of. It didn't seem right to up root them all over again, plus we had so much to deal with when we got home it wouldn't have been fair to them."

Ty remembered all too well the extreme turmoil the quest had caused Ashley, Andros and Zhane. It seemed that it happened so long ago, but it apparently still upset Ashley to talk about it.

"I haven't seen a real live cat since before the war." Ty informed her, hoping that if he steered the conversation to something more general it wouldn't be so awkward. It seemed to work as Ashley showed marked interest learning something new about her home.

"Really? I didn't know that there use to be cats on KO-35 at all." Ty nodded his head and walked over to a display of Fust.

"There are still some now, but they're rare and really hard to come by."

"On Earth they're so many of them they run wild and we even have shelters for them, and dogs too."

"I can't even imagine that. KO-35 had always had sparse wildlife and introducing non-native species in would devastate what we do have. That's why there are such strict rules about cats, dogs and…" Ty surprised himself by shuttering, "rodents."

He could see Ashley gearing up to ask a question and decided to distract her.

"Ok, what else is different? What about customs?"

"Well, Earth has so many different cultures, it would take me forever to list all the ones that I do know and that wouldn't cover half of it."

"Forget about all of Earth, just tell be about where you come from."

"Let's see… we celebrate birthdays, you're considered and adult at 18 but can't drink alcohol until you're 21, we have last names and most of the time middle names too."

"That was hard to get used to." Ty cut in. "Hearing someone call you Ashley Hammond and not think of you as being married."

Ashley began to blush. "I really wish Andros or Zhane would have warned me about that. I was in the middle of an interview when I was asked about my husband. I still don't know who was more embarrassed, me or the reporter."

"So, how do you show that you're married?" Ty asked bewildered, the whole idea of being born with a last name feeling so… alien.

"Well, women still usually change their last name to their husband's last name." Ashley offered.

"Why to his name and not hers, and what good does that do? If all of you have last names anyway how would you know the difference?"

"We also exchange rings." She said almost defensively. "How do you choose what your last name will be if no one has one until you're married?"

Ty wondered for a moment how he would explain how Kerovans went about choosing their bonded name. He didn't really want to get into how he and Ryse choose theirs and why he didn't have it anymore, but he was saved from having to by a spinning projectile heading for Ashley's face. He could feel his heightened reflexes shift into automatic, but his were nothing compared to Ashley's. Before he even had a chance to get moving the red and yellow ball stopped in mid air.

By the way she was looking at the ball, Ty knew that she had stopped it with telekinesis and was duly impressed. He had never reached that level of awareness. Ashley stared a moment longer at the ball then absently let it fall into her hands. She began looking around the market.

"Lasey?"

At the sound of her voice, a little boy of about six or seven years of age came flying out from beside a display. The child came to a halt in front of Ashley and took the ball from her.

"Where have you been?" The boy demanded, his jet black curls bounced as he talked.

"Lasey, didn't you guys get my letter?" Lasey nodded his head, he continued to pull his cute little face into a frown.

"Xanth said you had more important things to do than take classes with us, and that's why you didn't come back."

Ashley knelt down before the boy and eased the ball from his hands. "Then don't listen to Xanth. Lasey things have been happening around here and it wouldn't be safe for you if I came to class right now."

"They gave me a new partner. I don't like him, he mumbles all the time."

Ashley smiled fondly at the boy and lightly tapped him on the nose with the ball. "Maybe he's shy."

Lasey didn't seem the least bit appeased. Somewhere ahead of them in the market a man called Lasey's name. The little boy stiffed then backed away quickly, taking his ball with him.

"That's my parents. I have to go. Do you think you'll be back soon?" The plea clear in his pale eyes.

"I hope so Lasey."

The boy smiled and hurried off to clasp the hand of one of the two tall men that greeted him and it dawned on Ty why the boy had such pale green eyes, it also explained Lasey's rather unusual curly black hair.

"Blended." Ty said absently as he watched Lasey being lifted up and swung around by one of his parents.

"What?" Ashley asked.

"Oh, nothing just thinking out loud." Ty said causally waving her off.

There must have been something in his face that told Ashley differently, because there were questions burning behind her eyes. The questions never came, but Ashley did run her fingers from Ty's shoulder to his elbow. She gave a comforting squeeze and a soft smile, telling without words that she was there if he needed her. Maybe that was the reason he found himself talking.

"Lasey's a blended child, meaning that he was genetically engineered. Did you see his parents? One had black hair and one had curly."

"But they were both guys?"

"You're quick for a Ranger," Ty joked, and Ashley glared at him. "That's were the genetic engineering comes in."

"You mean that Lasey has no mother?" Ashley asked, almost sounding shocked.

"No of course not," Ty sighed. How backwards was Earth anyway? "There's no such thing as an artificial womb that will support human life first of all, plus unless you want a clone you have to mix male and female chromosomes. Did you notice how pale Lasey's eyes were? That's a side effect of the blending. His mother probably has green or hazel eyes."

Suddenly Ty realized that Ashley was staring intently at his own eyes. 

"What?"

Ashley instantly started blushing. "I was just wondering if you… I mean the color of your eyes and all, I thought maybe…"

"Oh, no no no. That's a natural mutation within the Kerovan population. It runs in the same line with the two-tone hair, like Andros', it's just more rare."

Ashley seemed to be fidgeting as she chewed at her lip. "When you say mutation. How much of a change is there? I mean how different are you and Andros from everyone else?"

Ty felt his throat constrict. Without intending to, Ashley had just touched a very sore spot. One of the major reasons he had become a geneticist was to study his own genetic make up. At first it had only been for curiosity's sake and besides that he was good at it. Then he had met Ryse.

The two of them had hit it off immediately, and within a month he had known that this was the person that he had wanted to spend the rest of his life with. Inside of six months they were married. The only spot of contention between them had been children.

Ryse had wanted children as soon as possible. He had never been opposed to children, in fact, Ty wanted children, a few of them, but he wanted them to be his and Ryse's and that was were the problem came in. The same mutation that made his eyes gold interfered with the blending process. The catalyst used to facilitate the process interacted with the naturally mutated genes causing mass mutations down the line. Ninety-nine percent of zygotes terminated automatically when the changes became too great to support life. There are still only ten fetuses recorded that ever made it to delivery.

He had been insistent with Ryse that they look into having a child of their own, while Ryse hadn't cared saying that as long as the child was either his or Ty's it was fine with him. But Ty had pushed the issue and in the end Ryse had relented. With special permission Ty was able to work on his and Ryse's case himself as a project in his group.

For two years he tried to find a way around the problem, but was unsuccessful, like all of the geneticist before him. Then Ryse was killed. There wasn't a day that didn't go by that Ty didn't wish that he had let Ryse have his way. At least then he would have had something of him left. Something tangible that he could hold onto.

"Ty?"

Ashley softly speaking his name startled him so much that Ty dropped his basket, and all of its contents spilled onto the ground. Trying to hide the tears, he quickly dropped down to retrieve them. Ashley helped but Ty hardly noticed.

"Ashley," Ty said suddenly, holding her hand as she went to put the mint back in the basket, "Don't ever let an opportunity pass you by because you think that you want something bigger, or better. Sometimes you're not given a chance to get it."

She held his hand tightly, but didn't answer. He thought that maybe she understood what he meant. He hoped she did. The strong scent of mint hit the air when they let go of each other and released the now crushed herb. They didn't speak the rest of the way to the hanger. Each of them too lost in their own similar, but different thoughts.

End


End file.
